1500 NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE No. 65

Blueprint for Change

Government’s policies and procedures for its research, science and technology investments

Issued on 11 May 1999 by the Hon. Maurice Williamson, Minister of Research, Science and Technology,

Contents

Foreword by the Minister of Research, Science and Technology

1 Introduction

2 How public investment in research, science and technology can contribute to the development of a knowledge society

A Becoming a knowledge society

B The Foresight Project

C The innovation system

D Outline of statement

3 The investment framework

A Science envelope goals

B Target outcomes

C Performance measurement system

4 Roles and Responsibilities

A Ministry of Research, Science and Technology

B Purchase agents

C Providers

D Users

5 Stewardship expectations

6 Timeline

This document, especially Section 3 (C), serves as written notice of the Government’s priorities for the purchase of public good science and technology (PGST) outputs under section 7 (1) of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Act 1990. In addition to this Statement of Priorities, the annual appropriations process will specify allocations to specific PGST outputs. This specification will detail spending for the appropriation year plus two out-years.

Foreword

We are on the brink of a period of profound change in our society. All that we do, all that we make, and all that we learn will be altered by new knowledge and technological change. Knowledge differs from other resources—each new discovery provides a platform for further discoveries.

The Foresight Project, run by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology in 1998/99, focused on exploiting knowledge for our future prosperity and well-being, and our development as a knowledge society. Foresight is simply a way of thinking about the future. Rather than projecting into the future with assumptions about how today works, foresight involves constructing a vision of a desirable future, and then identifying strategies to take you there. Through the Foresight Project, major innovation challenges for New Zealand were identified.

The Foresight Project provided a framework for thinking about the sort of future New Zealand wants, and defined the context for the Government’s research, science and technology investments. The Government invests in research, science and technology to generate new innovative, economic, environmental and social capability. In this way, the Government underpins innovation throughout all sectors of New Zealand. It cannot work in isolation, however. Innovation must be focused on the needs of end-users—whose lives, environments and enterprises will be affected by new knowledge and technological change.

The Government needs confidence that its research, science and technology investments will be rapidly and effectively exploited to achieve stated innovation goals. This is more likely where sectors demonstrate their strategic thinking about the future, through bold and dynamic innovation strategies.

This document provides a blueprint for change. It builds on the Foresight Project and sets a new framework for Government’s investment in research, science and technology. The new framework has been designed to ensure that Government’s investment will be managed in a more enabling and less prescriptive way. The policies and procedures outlined in the following pages relate specifically to management of Government’s science envelope investment.

This statement of policies and procedures should take effect immediately. The rate of change for research, science and technology activities, however, depends on a range of factors, including the capacity to reorient researchers, develop new skills and methodologies, and build new collaborations. I therefore expect implementation of these changes to be phased in steadily.

MAURICE WILLIAMSON, Minister of Research, Science and Technology.

May 1999

1. Introduction

In contrast to past Government statements concerning research, science and technology (RS&T) policy, this blueprint identifies what Government seeks to achieve through its investment, rather than how much it proposes to spend.

The overall goal of the investment is to develop a knowledge society, characterised by knowledge-led innovation.

The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) introduced the Foresight Project in 1997 to identify the major challenges New Zealand faces in achieving this goal. The two broad goals of the Project were to:

• encourage an ongoing process of strategic thinking across diverse communities, as a basis for developing a coherent and forward-looking view of needs and opportunities for new knowledge and technological change; and

• using the insights gained, develop a new set of priorities for contracts within Government’s investment in research, science and technology, to take effect in July 2000, in order to complement the diverse strategic intents of other investors.

This blueprint represents one outcome of the Foresight process. It provides the blueprint for a framework designed to ensure that Government’s investment in RS&T is directed towards stimulating the development of a knowledge society in New Zealand.

This framework will form the basis of output-contracts with the major purchase agents within the RS&T system. Currently these agents are: the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST), the Health Research Council (HRC) and the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ).

The new framework consists of:

1. A set of goals to set the key directions for investment decisions across the science envelope:

These goals apply to the whole science envelope, which comprises all of Vote RS&T, the research component of funding for tertiary institutes in Vote Education, and